About Us

The Chorleywood Residents Association (Hertfordshire, UK) is a non-party political association that is passionate about maintaining the special character of Chorleywood.

The work of the Association is championed by the Executive Committee, a dedicated enthusiastic body of volunteers, committed to representing the members of the Association and campaigning on their behalf.

The Executive Committee is supported in this work by the Area Representatives and others who undertake the essential tasks including delivering the twice yearly newsletter and collecting subscriptions.

We hope that this website will be a focal point for the residents of Chorleywood and through the contributions to us from everyone (whether members or not of the Association) we can become a valuable source of information for the local community.

The ongoing inaction of Hertfordshire County Council to seemingly do anything to improve the situation of flooding on Green Street has become a considerable issue for the local community. Safety issues for school children trying to get to school. Delivery drivers avoiding the village. Disruption to the 336 bus. Resulting slower traffic on the A404. Poor road closure signage by Herts Highways. Numerous drivers getting caught out and their cars written off. And ongoing inconvenience for the community.

Whilst there have been terrible floods in many places in the UK, and in context to other places the impact upon Chorleywood is really limited to inconvenience, we really need County Hall to understand that this issue is a recurring problem that is not going to go away and is hence a priority and needs the root cause addressing.

Working with Chorleywood Magazine and Chorleywood Mums we've done an update on the Green Street issue.

Register a complaint with County Hall over their general inaction (will take you about 5-10 minutes online)

Email Flood Water Management at County Hall and help prioritise this issue for resolution (will take 10-15 mins)

Use the comments section on the Chorleywood Magazine to share your views with the community (as long as you like!)

As a community we've suffered from the loss of the use of Green Street for a month so far this year and 10 weeks out of the last 26 months, so action is overdue.

Environment

Are you aware of the Chorleywood Common Project and the plans for the Common? The Parish Council has employed an extra member of staff to consider a number of specific projects, this being one of them - read more about it in The Chorleywood Common Project

Transport

Linked to the Green Street issue is the fact that many students at St Clement Danes walk to school - it's a good thing and to be encouraged. However when Green Street is closed, the students have to divert via Common Road and Chenies Road. Common Road has no footpath for much of its length, and the footpath on Chenies Road floods to the west of the junction with Common Road to the extent that Children often end up walking on the road. We have highlighted these on many occasions as have others, and an Chorleywood CAIRS (Chorleywood Action Group for Road Safety) has formed to spearhead road safety issues in Chorleywood. We're happy to support Chorleywood CAIRS and will be working with them.

The good news is that next week - during half-term week - a French Drain is due to be constructed in the pavement on Chenies Road to try and alleviate the flooding on the pavement which will hopefully mean that students no longer need to walk in the road on the A404 to get to school. We're hopeful that this work will go ahead after many years of campaigning by local residents, and others alike.

We've also attended a Highways Locality meeting with Chris Hayward to identify with others in his County Ward opportunities to use his Highways Locality budget for some repairs that might not otherwise be priorotised from the operational and capital maintenance budgets at County Hall. We'll write about this and other matters next time, Green Street and other Highway issues have been taking up too much of our time!

Play Area

Despite the setback in Autumn regarding the Play Area, work is continuing in the background between various stakeholders on how to progress the Play Area project for the community. We don't have any more news at this stage, but work is underway.

Newsletter

Our half-yearly newsletter will be published in April, and we would like to invite the community to submit any articles for inclusion to the newsletter by Friday 7th March - so you've got three weeks to write in - email your submissions to newsletter@chorleywoodresidents.co.uk

Planning

We've been invited by the Parish Council to be involved in the creation of a Community Plan. It's an opportunity for the community to create a road map to inform and shape how our community will develop over time, and we've confirmed our involvement with two members of the executive committee being involved in this project. We'll keep you updated.

There's also a change in with our Planning lead Annette Naughton handing over the reigns to new committee member. Planning advice and involvement is a considerable time commitment for any Residents' Association, not least ours and we have to thank Annette for the work she's done in this area over the past few years. She will continue to be a member of the Executive Committee. Continue to contact us about planning matters at planning@chorleywoodresidents.co.uk

The planning proposal for Lidl in Rickmansworth was rejected by the Three Rivers Planning Committee, expect them to come back with a modified scheme. And the developer trying to knock down the Long Island Exchange has submitted a 3rd scheme for the demolition of our local hotel.

A new Youth Club is planned for Chorleywood through a partnership with Watford YMCA. There is a "have your say" session on Wednesday 26th February at 6.30pm in Rootz Cafe Bar (free hot drinks!) so please encourage those who may wish to attend to pop down and influence the new club.

An opportunity for children to find out more about our local wildlife on and around the common this week, during half-term with Bug Storeys.

What's On

Our What's On Diary is packed as usual with lots of high quality local events to keep us busy and informed.

A special mention for the upcoming Little Lit Fest on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th March, organised by Chorleywood Bookshop. We hear that places are selling quickly, which considering the line up they've prepared is not surprising.

And our AGM will take place on Wednesday 7th May from 7.30pm in the evening in the Memorial Hall.

Although we use these emails, as well as our website to keep in touch, don't forget our Twitter feed. A lot of what is going on locally ends up on our twitter feed, and we now have over 1000 followers. You don't need to use Twitter or even understand what Twitter and all this tweeting is all about to be able to see our Twitter updates - you can just go to http://twitter.com/chorleywoodres on your computer to be able to see what we have been tweeting recently. There are many things that we tweet that never make it onto our website or in our email updates. But if you do use Twitter, don't forget to follow us.

When we wrote previously it was in the run up to a rescheduled Parish Council meeting about the Play Area. You will probably be aware by now that the Parish Council voted to reject the proposed Play Area on Chorleywood Common. We were very disappointed that after over two years of discussions and consultations the Parish Council decided to stop the project in its tracks to provide the community with much needed additional play area.

It is evident that the issue of the Play Area and it's siting on the common has become a very divisive local issue. Our previous email the wording of the message was ambiguous - we just want to note that Friends of Chorleywood Common had, and continue to be, very helpful to us as well as their members and other stakeholders, and we apologise for any misunderstanding.

As an Executive Committee we continue to review what the next steps are regarding the Play Area and will continue to engage with all stakeholders to try and find a way forward for the benefit of the community. If you have any views please get in touch at playground@chorleywoodresidents.co.uk

Newsletter

Our members should have received over the past few weeks the most recent edition of the Chorleywood Newsletter. We hope you've all enjoyed reading about what we have been doing. We always welcome your comments or feedback so please get in touch at newsletter@chorleywoodresidents.co.uk - Thanks to our Area Reps for making the deliveries.

And we've asked TfL to review the finger pointing between themselves and NCP their Car Park contractor that left the station car park in the dark for 3 weeks. We helped escalate the issue within TfL and get the lights turned back on.

Planning

You have until next Friday to register any comments on the Lidl proposal for Rectory Road in Rickmansworth.

Health

As the winter starts to bite, a reminder that It's the Cold, not the Snow that really has the impact for elderly and vulnerable residents there may be additional help for to help counteract the effects of the cold.

And if you need health care, especially out of hours, do you really know all of the local options available to you? read our article Which Emergency Health Service. As we live on the border of Herts, Bucks and Hillingdon you may not always be told about services outside of Hertfordshire.

And if you're not working on Monday 23rd December, how about giving someone the chance of life as a Christmas Present? There is a Blood Donation session at St Clement Danes school on Monday 23rd December. Call 0300 123 2323 to register or visit www.giveblood.co.uk - more detail in our What's on Diary

Noticeboard

Late Night Shopping

Next Friday 6th December is the Chorleywood late night shopping evening and Christmas Festival in Lower Road and Main/New Parade. Running as usual from 4pm to 9pm, the event is organised by the Chorleywood Business Association and our local retailers and promises to be the usual high quality local community event. Please come and support our community groups and retailers attending the evening.

School Christmas Fairs

Next Saturday it's the battle of the School Christmas Fairs next weekend with the Christchurch School Fair kicking off at 2pm and The Russell School Fair at 3.30pm. If you go prepared with gloves to the Christchurch Fair they will have an ice skating rink in addition to all the usual festive events.

A family orientated event "The Great Race" in the afternoon is a hilarious romp through all sorts of musical genres, tracing music associated with cars, horses, and anything that races. There will be lots of interaction and chance for participation as well as an outrageous, fun racing finale. The concert is designed for all families young at heart and everyone is encouraged to bring a teddy.

In the evening the event is themed "A Night at the Movies" The programme features a half-hour silent comedy from 1916 by Charlie Chaplin, with live music from an original 1920s film score library owned by the orchestra. During the first half of the concert the orchestra brings more contemporary film themes with a quiz and much fun and pathos.

What's On

we would just like to highlight the POSTPONEMENT of the Chorleywood Presents... that was planned for next weekend in the Memorial Hall.

Please take a few minutes to act upon this message - don't assume that everyone else will do it

Our latest email is very focussed upon the issue of the proposed play Area for Chorleywood. You will be aware that over the past couple of years, the Residents' Association and others have been working on the Play Area project. We're now in the final approval stages, but there seems to be a significant risk that the Parish Council may at the last minute deny the necessary approval for the project to proceed.

If this approval is not forthcoming promptly (by November) there is a significant risk that the funding for the Play Area from Three Rivers will disappear and Chorleywood will lose out on an important new and exciting amenity for the community. This threat has only materialised in the past couple of weeks after over two years of hard work by everyone involved.

We are concerned that the will of the majority of the community to have a new Play Area on the common may be lost in whatever has been queried and caused the Parish Council to pause the approval process. The detail of these technical issues have not been shared with the community - the Friends of Chorleywood Common have also been seeking clarity on what is going on which hasn't been helpful. [Editor's note: it's the lack of technical details that has been unhelpful, rather than the the action of FoCC seeking clarity]

Whatever your views on the project we would ask you all to take a few minutes over the weekend - no later than Tuesday - to email your Parish Councillor and let them know your views. We hope you might be able to

highlight that the community has been broadly consulted on the concept of the Play Area twice

the community have responded in favour of the general concept of the plans now being voted upon

question your Parish Councillor on their view, and state your view

if they vote against the project are they representing the views of the wider community, and whose views are they representing?

If you have the chance to mention this to your neighbours and other residents over the weekend we would appreciate it. We've been working for a long time to campaign for better play facilities for the children in our community, and sincerely hope that the Play Area project is not derailed.

What's On

A very busy weekend of local events, and more for you calendar up until the end of October.

The summer period is a time when a lot of stuff just stops or slows down as many local families take their annual holidays or have other distractions. However with the start of September many things start to get back into their regular pattern of activities. Not least our email updates to our members and residents in and around Chorleywood.

The 61st season of Chorleywood & Rickmansworth WEA courses for all in Chorleywood has been published. And to help the local WEA the Dates for your diary for September 2013 and on to Spring 2014 are available on our website.

Health

The comprehensive service offered by the NHS can sometimes serve to confuse us on where to go for help or advice. We'd like to remind residents of our article Which emergency health service? on our website to help signpost you to the right service.

It seems that an incorrect licence application for the proposed new use of the Sheratons building has raised concerns for some local residents on Lower Road. We're continuing to keep an eye on these developments.

We're lucky that there have been several occasions this year when London Underground have been running special events on the Metropolitan Line as part of the 150 year anniversary celebrations. But is it right that off-peak steam trains can run quicker than off-peak modern metropolitan line trains?

Membership

The committee is doing a considerable amount of background work and debating how to improve our membership records and assimilate members from the former Chenies Estate Residents' Area area, as well as scaling up our newsletter delivery methods to cope with more Area Reps. It's one of the those hidden things that to the majority of our members "just happens"

What a cracking Village Day we had this year! Who could have thought that after the disappointment caused by the weather last year this year could have been so different. We had a great time meeting many of you and as always getting your feedback on what are your local concerns, over a glass of something of course. We raised over £350 from the sale of Pimms and once we've totted up the moneys we will be giving the proceeds to Watford Mencap, who have a residential home in Chorleywood.

You may remember around this time last year there was a consultation carried out by Three Rivers District Council on a proposed new Play Area for Chorleywood, where they were asking where in Chorleywood would the community prefer a new Play Facility. The majority view from that exercise was to focus on The Common, and between the Parish Council, District Council and other local stakeholders (including ourselves) a report was drawn early in 2013 up that put forward many options of locations on the common. Concensus has put forward "Area 13" as a preferred location - this is just behind the permissive parking area by the Shepherds bridge. The project group have been aware of the sensitive nature of the common at all times, and the concept of the scheme is for it to blend into and compliment the environment.

The District Council have also gone out to tender for potential layouts and designs, and the community now has until Friday 9th August to respond to their consultation. You can find out more on the District Councils websitewww.iplayoutdoors.co.ukand there you can see all the plans and respond online. Alternatively you can consult the plans in the Library or the Parish Council offices and leave your comments there.

We've written up a page on our own website on this latest stage of consultation. We hope that there is suitable consensus for the project to move forward, and that the necessary permissions can be obtained from the Secretary of State to approve the use of the common land for this community purpose. For more background on the whole issue, just to to our Play Area webpage, where you can see all the updates and history over the past few years (most recent at the top).

we're pleased to be able to report that after 20+ years of indecision, the plan to extend the Metropolitan Line from Croxley to Watford Junction has been approved. It should be constructed and in service by 2016.

Burtons Lane - note that this road may be closed for three days next week, due to propsoed works by Buckinghamshire Country Council.

What's On

This weekend - Saturday 27 July is Classics on the Common raising money for Help for HerosFor the next three weekends there is FREE (charity donation) Yoga on Sunday in the grounds of Chorleywood House Estate Tickets will go on sale shortly for the Sarratt Festival of Music - 20 to 28th Sep 2013

Summer has finally arrived in WD3 and we can be thankful that it's looking like it's going to be a glorious weekend for Chorleywood Village Day. You will probably remember that the weather was so awful last year that both the original date in July and an alternative date in September were both cancelled last year by Chorleywood Parish Council who organise the event, which was not only a shame for those hoping to attend the festivities, but also for the local organisations and traders who were depending upon village day to promote their activities and raise funds. We hope as many of you can support the day by turning up and enjoying the festivities and the weather to make up for the event not running last year.

The Chorleywood Residents' Association will be there and we look forward to welcoming as many of you as we can onto our stand. We'll be serving Pimms (it's a good vintage, 2012 stock!) with fresh mixers, fruit and refreshing ice cubes. You can find out more about what we've been up to. And for many of you from the CERA (Chenies Estate) area it might be the first time you have the chance to come and say hello, we look forward to seeing you.

But it's not just about us - there are going to be lots of other things to do. Free bike marking from the police. A Dog Show. Tug of War. Dancing and Singing. There's lots more - 93 organisations are listed as due to attend. And the best thing is that its all FREE to attend. Where else can you get an afternoon of entertainment for nothing? But do please bring some money just in case your tempted by anything!

For all the details please check out our special Village Day webpage where we have tried to collate all the details together in one place. There's also the Chorleywood & District Horticultural Society Summer Show and the Christchurch Flower Show on at the same time, all on the common at the same time.

Upcoming changes to RecyclingOur recycling facilities in Three Rivers are pretty good, especially when compared to some neighbouring authorities. But due to changes in the rules, Three Rivers have announced some changes from next year, and our recycling boxes will be replaced by a new wheely bin in about 12 months time. What do you think about this?

There's been a lot of bad publicity in the national media about the failings of the new NHS 111 service. But the news in Herdfordshire is that the new 111 service is working well and is provided by the existing Out of Hours GP service. But would you know where to go for help? Check out our signposting article from last year that can help direct you. And if you have any specific feedback about health services in the local area, get in touch! health@chorleywoodresidents.co.uk

If you use the Independant Living Fund, or know someone who does, please check out this article on upcoming changes to how this funding will work in future.

Poor Orange / T-Mobile / Virgin Mobile / EE signal

We've had a couple of reports via Twitter that the mobile signal is bad at the moment in Chorleywood. Apparently Orange are aware of the problem, and aim to fix it in the next day or so, but the more people who report it, the fault will get more priority. Call your customer service number from mobile handset (if it's working!) to complain!

And not to be outdone, Chorleywood Primary starts an hour later at midday and runs until 3pm.

You don't need to be involved in either school to turn up and support their events!

Chorleywood Village Day

Please make sure that you've got the Village Day in your diary for Saturday 13th July. This year the event will happen as the Parish Council have got a "Plan B" if the event cannot go ahead as planned on the Common.

So many local organisations are very much dependent upon the Village Day to support their activities, to recruit new members, raise a little bit of money, or even just to spread awareness of their activities. Your very own Residents' Association will be there from Pimm's o'clock (midday), so please come along and say hello.

A few weeks have passed since the 90th Edition of the Chorleywood Newsletter dropped through our residents' doors. What did you think? Any comments? Can you offer any articles for the Autumn edition? Get in touch with the team at newsletter@chorleywoodresidents.co.uk

Thanks to everyone who turned out for our recent AGM and Community Meeting on the 15th May. We've written up a resume of what happened - get in touch if you have any views but where not able to make the meeting.

There's a review of the political boundaries within Three Rivers. A previous round of consultation has seen the number of councillors in Three Rivers cut to 39, and the number of wards reduced to 13. Now the Local Government Boundary Commission are consulting on how to cut Chorleywood in two.

We would encourage anyone with day care activity needs, or know of people in the local area with day care activity needs to participate in the upcoming stakeholder events in Three Rivers organised by Hertfordshire Community Wellbeing. If there's a consultation, it's probably because there's some proposed changes afoot, and with the current funding climate it might not be good news.

A warning that the A404 Chorleywood Road (between the M25 junction and the Roundabout inRickmansworth) will be closed overnight on Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th June, with Wednesday being held as a contingency night.

Hopefully
you will have received and have enjoyed reading over the past couple of
weeks the latest Chorleywood Newsletter, our 90th edition. We need to
thank, as always, the team who write, edit, print, distribute the
Newsletter, and for our Area Reps who deliver it and collect your subs.
We're always interested to get your feedback, so if you have any
comments, or you've not received your copy yet please get in touch by
email to newsl...@chorleywoodresidents.co.uk or leave a message for us on 01923 537637.

We would like to remind you that this coming Wednesday, 15th May is our annual Community Meeting and AGMat 8pm in the Memorial Hall, on Common Road (next to the Golf Club).

All residents are welcome, members or not, and we look forward to
welcoming our new members from the Chenies Estate (CERA). The meeting is
your chance to catch up with the team behind the Chorleywood Residents'
Association, to find out what we've been doing, and tell us what we
need to focus upon for the forthcoming year, over a drink and some
nibbles. Additionally the team behind the proposed new community centre
"The Hive" that is hoping to occupy the basement of the current
Sheratons furniture store will be there to give a short presentation on
their project and to gain feedback. We really hope you can take a little
time out of your busy schedules to pop along for the meeting on
Wednesday evening.

French Market tomorrow

In
case you haven't realised why there have been French flags flying in
Lower Road for the past couple of weeks there will be a French Market in
New Parade and Main Parade tomorrow, from 10am to 4pm. Organised by
Chorleywood Business Association, many of our regular local shops will
be open for the day, so please pop down and support our local shops. We
hope the weather will as good as it was last year for the inaugural
market. Venez nombreux!

We wrote last time asking if Residents have been affected by recent badger activity. We had an article up on our website
but the feedback form was broken (opps, sorry!) but we've fixed it now.
Please get in touch if you've been affected or have concerns on this
issue.

It seems that the local highway authority is planning to
extend parking restrictions to the Chenies Estate to dissuade commuters
from parking in local roads. But do you have any views on this? Read the
article on our website and get in touch.

Keeping up to date

We
use a twitter feed to publish a lot of timely information on what is
going on, road closures, local news and other issues. If you have a
smartphone and use Twitter you can follow us @chorleywoodres
to keep abreast of what's going on as it happens. But even if you don't
use Twitter, or just don't understand what all the twitter and tweeting
is all about, you can still see the updates on your computer as a web
page - just go to http://twitter.com/chorleywoodres to take a look - there is also a link at the bottom of the front page of our website. We typically tweet a few times a day!

Firstly an apology for not having sent
out any emails recently. The Spring 2013 Newsletter (which should be
hitting your letter boxes by the end of the month) has been written and
edited, your Area Rep should be around to deliver it shortly - if you're
due to pay a subscription now please help your Area Rep by being ready
to pay. We've also been working through some of the detail of the merger
of the Chenies Estate Residents' Association. And this combined with
some awful weather, dayjobs, and holidays have conspired to create a bit
of a pause in our communications.

Please make a note in your diaries for the CRA Community and Annual
General Meeting, on Wednesday 15th May at 8pm in the Memorial Hall. We
really appreciate getting your feedback on our activities so we hope you
will make the time to come along.

Don't forget to tell us
if you organise or attend a local event that isn't in our local What's
On Diary. We're happy to share details of cultural, charitable and
predominately non-commercial events in the local community.